A big night of European action for Dinamo Zagreb.
Dinamo is ready for the most important game of the season so far. On Tuesday, they will play against Molde, in a return match of the third qualifying round of the Champions League. The score at the end of the first match was 1-1. The Norwegians have shown that they are extremely strong and organized team, but the Croatian champion is convinced that it will go through, according to an article in Index.hr on August 4, 2015.
“We have another 90 minutes of the fixture against Molde and we hope to go to the forth qualifying round. Molde won three titles in the last four years, which shows their quality, but we expect victory”, said coach Zoran Mamić at a news conference.
Importantly, the game will be played on artificial turf. Mamić said that the team is ready to play on artificial turf, which is in excellent condition. In recent days, Dinamo trained twice on the artificial surface in Zagreb, but some of the players missed that because of medical problems.
“It is hard to say how Molde will play, but we expect them to play much like in Zagreb. They have a positive result and do not need to attack and take risks, but we’ll see tomorrow. We need to be much faster, run much more than in Zagreb and shoot more when we are at the edge of the penalty area. I’m sure we will play better tomorrow”, said Mamić.
Mamić has admitted that for Dinamo it is easier to play away matches, because there is no pressure from the stands. It is not known how many of Dinamo’s fans will come to Norway. Two weeks ago they created chaos in Luxembourg, so a new incident would mean a drastic punishment for Dinamo.
Artificial turf, a week of rest and experience from Maksimir give Norwegians a slight advantage in the second leg, and even bookmakers no longer consider Dinamo as favorites.
If Dinamo prevails in its fixture against Molde, it would be just one step from Champions’ League group stage. However, even if it loses, the European season is not over yet as they will then have a change to qualify for the UEFA Europa League.
